Obesity and dental caries are major health problems in America. A review of the literature indicates that little research has been conducted on the acquisition of eating behaviors through observational learning processes, nor has there been much integration of the advertising literature with the social learning literature on modeling. The area of eating habits would seem to provide fertile ground to further examine various theoretical issues in the observational learning research and also at the same time provide scientific information on the effects of television food commercials on the acquisition of children's eating habits and attitudes, as they relate to obesity and dental caries. Thus, the objectives of the proposed research program to be conducted over the next two years are fourfold: (1) To investigate basic modeling and developmental processes in the area of eating behaviors of children. (2) To obtain experimental evidence about the effects of typical current food commercials on children's eating habits and attitudes. (3) To obtain experimental evidence about the effects of pro-nutritional commercials on children's eating habits and attitudes. (4) To provide scientific information for public policy-makers so that they may be better informed about the impact of television commercials on health-related behaviors of children. The scientific methods to be employed involve pre-test, post-test experimental designs. All children will be randomly assigned to the different treatment groups. Generally, children will be given individually a taste test to assess their eating behaviors before being exposed to the treatment phase. Then each treatment group will be exposed to a specific type of commercial, followed by a post-test to evaluate the effects of the manipulation. Appropriate statistical analysis will be used to test for differences.